The present invention relates to a suturing device for suturing using an endoscope for the purpose of hemostasis or for suturing or shunting tissues in body cavities.
In recent years, treatment using endoscopes has been drastically improving to enable various treatment of body organs without large incisions such as in open surgery. Suturing of punctures in body cavities and for hemostasis have become very important techniques among endoscopic treatment, and various methods have been attempted.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,037,433, for example, discloses a construction comprising a flexible endoscope (70) disposed in one of the lumens of an outer tubular member (20), and a forceps instrument (52) having a soft inner tube (32) in another lumen and having a forceps device is in yet another lumen. An elastic and deformable curved needle (44), to which a thread (48) is attached at its operator side, is inserted in its straightened state in the inner tube (32). In order to suture, the curved needle (44) is discharged from the inner tube (32) by pushing push rods (40, 42) which push the curved needle disposed at the distal end side of the inner tube (32) while a wound (66) in a body cavity is sutured by utilizing the force of the curved needle (44) tending toward its original shape.
According to U.S. Pat. No. 5,037,433, however, since the springy curved needle is inserted in a thin inner tube in its straightened state, a decompression force of the springy curved needle works against the inner tube when the curved needle is pushed out of the inner tube by the push rods, the puncture effect of the curved line is degraded and thus the curved needle does not penetrate into the target tissue deeply enough. Since the push rods must have a certain degree of rigidity to push the curved needle out, the outer tube member (20) cannot be curved excessively. In addition, once the needle has punctured the tissue, it cannot be retried, and dislocation of the puncture cannot be corrected.